Sofia Kovalevskaya
Sofia Kovalevskaya was the first woman in Europe to earn a doctorate in mathematics, and went on to become the first female appointed as a professor in the field.
Sofia Kovalevskaya was the first woman in Europe to earn a doctorate in mathematics, and went on to become the first female appointed as a professor in the field.
Considered by many to be the most successful pirate in history, Ching Shih led the Red Flag Fleet of 80,000 pirates and more than 1,800 ships, ruled the Chinese seas for two decades, and managed to retire happily – after extorting a very agreeable pension from the Chinese government.
After working as a prostitute in her early life, Ching Shih married into a pirate family in 1801, becoming an equal partner to her husband, Zheng Yi. Together, they built a massive coalition by unifying small groups of pirates into a federation of 70,000 pirates and 400 junk ships, and by 1804, they led one of the most powerful pirate fleets in all of China. After her husband died in 1807, Ching Shih navigated the politics of such a large force to become sole leader, and by 1809, she commanded over 800 large junks and 1,000 smaller ships. The fleet dominated the coast from Macau to Canton; it is reported that in the coastal Sanshan village, they beheaded 80 men and abducted the women and children and held them for ransom until they were sold in slavery.
The code of laws in the Red Flag Fleet was merciless. Insubordination was punished by immediate beheading. Withholding any goods taken held a severe whipping for a first-time offence, with the death penalty for large amounts, and no stealing was tolerated from either the public fund or villagers who supplied the pirates. Ching Shih’s code had unusual rules for female captives. In general, the pirates made their most beautiful captives their concubines or wives, and if a pirate took a wife he had to be faithful to her. Those deemed unattractive were released and any others were ransomed. Pirates who raped female captives were put to death and if pirates had consensual sex with captives, the pirate was beheaded and the woman he was with had cannonballs attached to her legs and was thrown over the side of the boat. Other violations of different parts of the code were punishable by flogging, clapping in irons, or quartering. Deserters or those who had left without official permission had their ears chopped off and were then paraded around their squadron.
In January 1808, the Chinese government tried to destroy her fleet in a series of fierce battles, but after defeats in which Ching Shih captured and comandeered several of their ships, the government had to revert to using fishing vessels for battle. At the same time, Ching Shih faced a bigger threat from other pirate fleets, including O-po-tae, a former ally who began working with the Qing government. The government also hired European bounty hunters, who were also defeated. She also challenged European power when she captured the East India Company merchantman The Marquis of Ely in 1809.
In September and November 1809, the fleet suffered a series of defeats from the Portuguese Navy at the Battle of the Tiger’s Mouth. In their final battle at Chek Lap Kok in 1810, Ching Shih surrendered to the Portuguese Navy on 21 January. The amnesty agreement the fleet accepted from the Qing Imperial government applied to all pirates who agreed to surrender, ending their career and allowed to keep the loot. It meant that only 60 pirates were banished, 151 exiled, and only 126 put to death out of her whole fleet of 17,318 pirates. The remaining pirates only had to surrender their weapons.
Ching Shih negotiated for Cheung Po, her second husband and second-in-command, to retain several ships, including approximately 120 to be used for employment on the salt trade. She also arranged for many of her pirates in the fleets to be given positions in the Chinese bureaucracy; Cheung Po became a captain in the Qing’s Guangdong navy. Ching Shih was also able to secure official government recognition her as Cheung Po’s wife, despite the restrictions against widows remarrying.
After Cheung Po died at sea in 1822, Ching Shih moved with their children to Macau and opened a gambling house; she was also involved in the salt trade there. In her 60s, she served as an advisor to head of state Lin Zexu during the First Opium War (1839-1842). In 1844, she died in bed surrounded by her family in Macau, at the age of 69.
The lone survivor of an ill-fated scientific expedition, this Iñupiat woman survived for two years on Wrangel Island, remote arctic island north of Siberia.
Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria is a Chilean politician who served as the United Nations’ High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2018. She previously served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and 2014 to 2018; a member of the Socialist Party of Chile, she was the first woman to hold the Chilean presidency. After leaving the presidency in 2010 and while not immediately reelectable (Chile does not allow consecutive presidential terms), she was appointed the first executive director of the newly created United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. In December 2013, Bachelet was reelected as president with more than 62% of the vote, improving on the 54% she won in 2006. She became the first President of Chile to be reelected since 1932.
Bachelet, a physician who has studied military strategy at university level, had also been Health Minister and Defense Minister under her predecessor, Ricardo Lagos. In addition to her native Spanish, she speaks, with varying levels of fluency, English, German, and Portuguese.
Angela Madsen was an American Paralympian athlete in both rowing and track and field. In her long career, Madsen moved from race rowing to ocean challenges before switching in 2011 to track and field, winning a bronze medal in the shot put at the 2012 Summer Paralympics. Madsen and her teammate Helen Taylor were the first women to row across the Indian Ocean. She died in June 2020 while attempting a solo row from Los Angeles to Honolulu.
Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies was the queen consort of Spain from 1829 to 1833 and regent of the kingdom on behalf of her daughter Isabella from 1833 to 1840. During the regency, she successfully fended off multiple attempts to steal her daughter’s birthright and place her dead husband’s brother, Carlos, on the throne.
Mary Morello is an American activist who founded anti-censorship group Parents for Rock and Rap in 1987, which earned her the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award in Arts and Entertainment in 1996. In the 1960s, Morello was involved in the US civil rights movement and the NAACP; she is also a long-time activist for the Chicago Urban League. In 1991, Morello began volunteering with the Salvation Army Rehabilitation Center in Waukegan, Illinois, teaching adult literacy. She was involved in the Cuba Coalition in Chicago, which works toward lifting the U.S. embargo against Cuba. Morello is also known for advocating in 1999 on behalf of death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted (possibly wrongly) of the 1982 shooting of a Philadelphia police officer. His death sentence was overturned by a Federal court in 2001
Her Highness Nawab Sikander Begum Sahiba, Nawab Begum of Dar ul-Iqbal-i-Bhopal, GCSI ruled as the the Nawab of Bhopal from 1860 until her death in 1868. Initially appointed regent on behalf of her 9-year old daughter Shah Jahan Begum in 1844, she was recognized as nawab in 1860. She was made a Knight Grand Commander for her pro-British stance during the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny. In 1863, she became the first Indian ruler to perform the Muslim pilgrimage of Hajj. Sikandar enacted many reforms in the state, including creating a mint, an administrative secretariat, a parliament and a modern judiciary.